1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a searching device, a searching method and a program for searching for a target such as an image, a text, a sound and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
These days, known is a searching device capable of searching for a user-desired image within an image database such as an electronic album or the like in which a plurality of image data obtained with the use of a digital still camera or a scanner are stored.
Further, similarly, various data concerning a text or a sound and so forth are respectively stored in a database, and it is possible to search for data stored in each database with the searching device.
By the way, in an image searching device, as a method for searching for a desired image among a large number of images stored in an image database, known is a method of searching an image based on a similarity of the image (see Japanese Patent Application Publication (Unexamined) No. Tokukai 2000-276484. Hereinafter, it is referred to as Patent Document 1). Concretely, by repeating an instruction of selecting an image similar to a desired image among a plurality of images displayed on a display unit by an instructing unit such as a mouse or the like, an image having high similarity to the instructed image is continuously extracted in order to search for the desired image.
Further, as a method for searching for a desired image, proposed is an image searching device to which a method of searching for an image according to a keyword which is in advance added to each image is applied. This image searching device stores each image with a plurality of types of feature amount added in advance, and adjusts any two types of feature amount among the plurality of types of feature amount for searching for a certain number of similar images to be displayed in the display unit corresponding to XY coordinate space (see Japanese Patent Application Publication (Unexamined) No. Tokukai-Hei 8-249352. Hereinafter, it is referred to as Patent Document 2).
Here, in general, display area of the display unit is limited, and thereby the number of images to be displayed on the display unit is limited. Therefore, in the above-mentioned image searching device of the Patent Document 1 and the like, when one instructs to display a plurality of images similar to the image selected by an instruction with the instructing unit such as a mouse or the like, in the order of similarity within an screen of the display unit, there is a possibility of not displaying the user-desired image within-the screen. Therefore, there are problems such as, taking a long time to find the desired image, losing sight of the desired image as repeating the instructions of selecting an image at the instructing unit, and so forth.
Further, the above-mentioned image searching device of the Patent Document 2 and the like are created for a certain object such as cloth texture, curtain texture and the like. Therefore, in the case of searching for a general photographic image or the like, it is difficult to select the feature amount making up each coordinate axis, so it is not realistic to apply the above-mentioned image searching method of the Patent Document 2 to the search of a photographic image or the like. Further, when the number of images to be searched for is increased, a problem emerges, such as an operation of adding a keyword to be the feature amount becoming complicated.